Title: Education, Propaganda, and Virtue
Tags: Virtue, Morality, Education, Philosophy
Blog Entry: Today on the [link="net" target=blank]VirtuousPla.net[/link] blogs, my co-blogger Miss Anna Williams discusses the [link="http://virtuouspla.net/2011/11/07/education-virtue/" target=blank]relationship between education and virtue[/link]. In summary: being more educated does not make a person more virtuous. I agree with her assessment if we take education to mean "getting a higher degree" and all of the learning which goes with it. But learning is not the same thing as education. A truly well-rounded education is one in which a person learns (strengthening the intellect) but also attempts to inculcate virtue (strengthens the will). [br][br] Now, of course, we don't just gain virtue on our own, but rather it helps to have teachers and peers who will help us to attain virtue. More importantly still, at least three of the virtues--the most important three--[link="http://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-wise-virgins-could-not-share-their.html" target=blank]come from God[/link], so we need God's grace, too. But at the very least, a proper education teaches us that we should try to be virtuous and that we should desire to be virtuous. To be sure, the rest is on us (to pray for God's grace, and then to cooperate with it when we receive it) and on God (to grant us grace--which He will always do when we need it).[br][br] With that said, I think it is actually arguable that, in our current “educational” climate at most universities, getting a degree can lead to a person’s becoming less virtuous. After all, there is one way in which knowledge is related to virtue: if we don’t know what “being virtuous” is, then we won’t be able to be virtuous even if we want to. Most people have some sort of moral compass, but it can be subverted; and all too often, it is subverted by the sheer propaganda which students are fed both in-class and out of class at their university of choice (which unfortunately includes some ostensibly Catholic universities). A person who wants to be good but whose conscience is convinced that evil things are good will not necessarily tend to be good. Propaganda--unworthy of the name "education"--[link="http://virtuouspla.net/2011/11/07/spiritual-battles-in-a-spiritual-war/" target=blank]can thwart us in our attempt to become virtuous[/link], be it by convincing us that some things are virtuous which are not (and vice versa), or by alternatively convincing us that we ought not be virtuous. [br][br] Luckily, grace can work with even this. Unfortunately, a lot of people won’t cooperate with this grace. Still, we all [link="http://www.niceneguys.com/philosophy/happiness-and-the-highest-goods-man" target=blank]ultimately desire what we believe is good[/link], even if our beliefs are [link="http://catholicamericatoday.net/blog/view/id_357/title_what-is-the-purpose-of-morality-part-1-right/" target=blank]mistaken[/link], [link="http://catholicamericatoday.net/blog/view/id_371/title_what-is-the-purpose-of-morality-part-2/" target=blank]perverted[/link], or [link="http://catholicamericatoday.net/article/article_617/" target=blank]disordered[/link]. God is willing and able to work with that, too.
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